The uncertainties in life have a strange way of shaping our future. Sometimes, what we think is for our benefit does not turn out in our favour and vice versa. In the recent past, unprecedented events, such as Covid or previous financial turmoil have been the junctures that allowed Indian tourism to reinvent itself. The last three years brought to light the immense potential that domestic tourism holds, not just in India but also globally. Travellers are ready to spend lavishly, provided they are offered services at par. They are ready to move around using any mode of transport, if the right infrastructure is available. While, the government is doing its best, in the construction and expansion of roads, highways, airports, helipads, etc., the private stakeholders, tourism professionals in the travel trade are geared to take tourism to new heights based on various new verticals and not be dependent on Inbound Tourism alone.
— Compiled by Priyanka Saxena Ray —
‘Go beyond Inbound Tourism & create opportunities in other streams of tourism’
Jyoti Mayal
President, TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India)
During Covid, we saw the entire shift of travel was towards domestic tourism. Post-Covid, India’s drive should have been towards inbound but somehow, we have lost out on this year’s season as there have been challenges on e-visas and secondly, we have not marketed our country to promote tourism. Today the traveller is looking for encouragement and constant handholding on the updation of policies of travel, hygiene, safety and promotion of sustainable tourism. Thus, I would say yes, in some ways we as a resilient industry have to make ourselves go beyond inbound tourism and create opportunities for ourselves and invest in other streams of tourism.
The entire travel trade and tourism industry is expected to be back on track by the end of 2023. There are multiple factors supporting the statement. COVID-related restrictions have been removed in almost all parts of the globe. However, people have been advised to take precautions and follow protocols. Travellers’ confidence is high and improving. But the challenge is the backlog. A rigorous joint exercise is required at the G to G level to bring the businesses back on track, especially for tourism. As President of TAAI & as an industry leader, we have been vocal in terms of providing our best possible support to any such initiative. We need countries to open their minds and attitude to give visas for tourism. The go-slow attitude needs to end & politics & tourism should not be interlinked. As President TAAI, and Vice Chairperson FAITH, we have been continuously sending recommendations for strong effective marketing on all platforms of electronic, print and social media. We need to invest in roadshows and B2B meetings. We need to make India an attractive destination by showcasing it as a sustainable destination with an effective emphasis on hygiene and safety. I truly believe India is the best country to promote tourism with its diverse landscape, heritage, culture, cuisines and much more. The Government needs to join hands with TAAI and other stakeholders to effectively promote India as a PPP model. It is Now or Never. This is the right time for us to reinvent, restructure & reconstruct our tourism.
MICE, Inbound, and Outbound are moving at their own pace. I believe that it will take a little more time in the MICE business to come back in totality as handling large gatherings is not an issue because companies and their employees are experienced enough. However, handling a situation, especially one related to health, is a little more difficult. Also, all of us have now become accustomed to the hybrid way of working, and therefore a lot of MICE events will have to follow the model for a while. I can’t put a specific deadline on it but am quite positive that by the mid of 2023, MICE will be back on track with larger numbers.
As TAAI President I need to reiterate a few things on behalf of my members. TAAI continues to work towards achieving industry status from all states for the entire sector, ease of business with the adoption of correct policies for the growth of the business, protection of travel agents’ monies from defaulting airlines, insurance for travellers, support in technology and marketing for our members and most importantly periodical meetings milestone driven to achieve all this.
I am pleased to share that, apart from all this, we are also working on the WITT initiative. Women-centric events are lined up for next year whereby our objective is to make them self-dependent by providing the right training, mentoring and guidance to be able to earn a robust livelihood for themselves and their families. As Chairperson of THSC, we are also going beyond women & investing a lot in Skills as a sector council. I feel a huge sense of satisfaction that we are delivering our best and have been able to skill the youth, support the industry to the utmost & will continue to do so.
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‘We expect that by 2023-24, we will go back to the 2019 figures’
Rajiv Mehra
President, IATO (Indian Association of Tour Operators)
Inbound traffic is still the key source of Foreign Exchange earnings and key revenue source for the stakeholders of tourism. However, post pandemic we see the Wedding Segment come up along with Domestic Travel. Infact, both augur well for Inbound as if Indians can travel within India then it justifiably projects India as a safe and secure destination across the world.
Around 35% of my business is still being driven by the Inbound traffic.
However, going forward, we are very hopeful for the revival of Inbound with measures addressed by the policy makers and our inputs to them. We expect that by 2023-24 we will go back to the 2019 figures provided there is no further Covid wave.
Events are fast picking up in the form of weddings. Other facets of MICE are making a slow progress. A complete recovery is very hard to predict as still a lot of meetings are online as corporates aim to reduce cost post Covid. 2024 will be a year of rebound for many tourism segments.
The theme for our 37th Annual Convention is “INBOUND TOURISM – What Lies Ahead”. The aim is to focus on the THEME and seek viable inputs from the Ministry of Tourism, participating states and key players in the private sector comprise leading tour operators and hotel chains. With the inaugural address by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, a strong band of 700 plus tour operators at the convention deliberating and participating at the key business and State Presentations, a session on Uttar Pradesh, culminating in the post-convention tours at the strategic tourist sites of Uttar Pradesh catering to onsite marketing of the destinations of Uttar Pradesh , the city of Lucknow and the state of Uttar Pradesh would definitely experience a boost in tourism with the convention. The industry is looking up to business leaving Covid behind and at the IATO Convention the setting is apt with the theme of the convention.
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‘It is hard to run a business in Inbound when we have no destination support’
Rajeev Kohli
CIS, CITP, DMCP
Joint Managing Director
Creative Travel
Domestic Indian business has always been a mainstay of the Indian hospitality industry. It just wasn’t as sexy and high profile as inbound was. The pandemic gave the hotels to use supply and demand reasons as an excuse to aggressively up their rates for the domestic traveller. Where the international traveller used to be high vale, that has been displaced by simple price manipulation making Indians pay more than they ever have.
Hotel rates have soared in India, but that is a phenomenon world over. We are in a phase of temporary imbalance, where not all planes are flying and hotels are full with pent up demand for leisure and MICE. I predict 6-8 months before we see normalcy return. It has to. That is a fundamental of economics, and every student of eco knows that. The lucrative wedding business will find its footing back to moving overseas as was the patter of the past. After all, the global NTOs are not spending big bucks for nothing to get the big fat weddings back. Visa issues will ease off and our travellers will wander the world again. So, for my hotel friends who expect the upwards trends to be indefinite, not going to happen. It just defies logic and patterns of the Indian traveller. Take a look at the Maldives, the apple of everyone’s eyes of the past two years. They have seen a dramatic softening of their market.
I feel, revival is the wrong approach. Survival comes first. Achieving profitability needs to be the single driver. Much easier for smaller companies with low overheads and harder for the medium to larger players who have deeper investments in quality manpower and infrastructure. If anyone in India is targeting 2019 as their benchmark for this year, good luck. I know all my DMC friends in Europe and the Americas have already cross 2019 figures. We in India have tremendous administrative issues that are choking us from achieving even a decent base. Two or our top three Western markets cannot use our e-visa system. We have zero marketing and advertising. There is a strong lack of interest for India in most source markets. It is hard to run a business in Inbound when we have no destination support. It will take us 2-4 years to get back to the 2019 levels.
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‘Domestic Tourism will always be the biggest driver of tourism in India’
Rajat Sawhney
Sr. Vice President, ADTOI (Association of Domestic Tour Operators in India)
The focus of tourism in India for last many years has primarily been on the Inbound segment and not much importance was ever given to other forms of tourism.
Domestic Tourism has been like a SLEEPING GIANT, which has slowly yet steadily evolved and grown at a phenomenal pace in the last 15 years. This giant suddenly woke up during the pandemic. Amidst visa and travel restrictions (Inbound and Outbound) and became a catalyst for the growth of Domestic Tourism, which came into prominence and unleashed its full potential. Indians have evolved and matured as travellers in the last ten years and started to value Domestic Tourism and embarked on journeys to the lesser known and hidden gems of India.
Domestic Tourism will always be the biggest driver of tourism in India. Indian Tourism growth story will never be complete without Domestic Tourism in its forefront.
In terms of revival and going back to the 2019 numbers, I think it is a matter of time before we do. I feel that by the Winter of 2023, we will see major recovery and by 2024 we will go back to the 2019 figures.
The recovery of MICE business has been slow. In the events and conventions sector, I feel 15 to 20% business has returned. The main area of concern here has been the steep hike in air fares (both domestic and international), which has been a discouraging factor for big MICE movements. I feel that by April 2023 onwards, airfares should stabilise and give a boost to the MICE groups.
Lastly, I would like to add that the Destination Weddings in India have been a surprise winner. During and post pandemic, this has been a fast-moving segment. Destination weddings fares (both domestic and international) have contributed nearly 30% to our company business during and post pandemic. I personally feel that the travel professionals must focus on destination weddings in times to come as this segment is here to stay and grow at a phenomenal pace.
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‘There are guesstimates that Inbound arrivals to India will cross 25mn by 2030’
Tejbir Singh Anand
Founding Board of Director & Vice Chairman “FAITH”
Sr. Vice President, ATOAI (Adventure Tour Operators Association of India)
India is a very large, vast and diverse country. Even the Indians have not seen India completely. The domestic tourism market is a different model where mostly the duration of the holiday ranges from 2 to 5 nights, whereas the inbound segment movement usually ranges around 10 days to 3 weeks. The first to kickstart post pandemic was obviously the domestic market in every country, which took the tourism industry by a pleasant huge surprise and called it “Revenge Tourism”. The last 3 quarters have seen stupendous demand for quick getaways within the country by the domestic market and all hotels in the tourist destinations have been witnessing completely sell out. Not only have they done tremendously well but even their rates have drastically gone up by almost 200% in some cases, which is concerning as a separate subject especially for the inbound market, making India an expensive proposition for the luxury segment. The revival of the hotels in the leisure segment has been spectacular and similarly for the aviation industry. The transportation segment is also not doing bad either as we see rise in events, conferences and meetings kick starting. The tour operators are also flooded with queries however the conversions could be better. New infrastructure has also come up in the form of new hotels, good roads, fresh airports and latest trains.
We are a well-balanced company where we had different verticals looking after inbound tourism, domestic tourism, MICE and investments in developing activity centres, campsites and resorts. Most of our inbound traffic comes from Europe and specifically from the UK market. However, at present our inbound business is perhaps at just 15% of what we used to do.
Going forward, I am very optimistic and looking forward to the revival of inbound tourism in India. It might take some time to go back to the figures of 2019 however it will be an organic growth for sure. Three major factors which will help in the revival are (1) realistic and cost-effective air fares (2) ease of getting a visa for coming into India and (3) clear information and dissemination of information on the new protocols and guidelines. These will be the deciding factors as to how soon we can not only bounce back to the 2019 figures but perhaps surpass them. Post COVID, there is a surging demand to visit India being an exotic destination. India as a destination is unparalleled and has always retained the impression in the global traveller of being a mystical, vibrant and super diverse destination. I am very optimistic and already we are seeing inbound groups slowly starting to trickle in. Historically India inbound arrival figures hover around 10 million travellers per annum and post COVID with the surge in demand, there are guesstimates that the figures will cross 25 million travellers by 2030 itself. I think by October 2023, we should be able to reach the same levels as pre pandemic.
Recovery of MICE segment has been slow. Conferences are still a laggard but the trickle has already started. Events have also picked up as there is no fear of COVID anymore in India. There is definitely a solid traction happening in the MICE business and we look forward to hosting a number of groups in the very near future.
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‘Foreigners want to explore the new and developed India with improved infrastructure’
Jay Bhatia
Vice President, TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India)
Tourism in India is dependent on Inbound tourism. However, post pandemic Domestic Tourism within India has grown multi-fold. With the improvement in infrastructure and new hotels and different varieties of accommodation options available, Domestic Tourism has seen an exponential growth. The Indian Travel and Tourism saw a huge increase and shall continue to see growth in the domestic arena too.
In my organisation, pre-pandemic, around 75-80% of our business was inbound tourism related. Now, over the past one year around 35% of the business has been inbound. This is also due to the challenges being faced on issuance of visas/ visa on arrival as well as restricted flight operations from and to India.
I am extremely confident regarding the revival of Inbound Tourism and soon we will be touching the 2019 figures. Inbound Tourism to India shall touch a new high!
Foreigners want to explore not only the new India, in terms of infrastructure and development but also want to explore Indian history, culture and heritage. Homestays, Village and Rural Tourism, Agri Tourism along with Wellness Tourism shall certainly see an exponential growth in tier2/tier3 cities of India.
With the Indian Aviation space as well as the Railways growing and trying to connect upto the last mile, inbound is certainly the next big thing in Indian Travel and Tourism.
MICE sector currently is stagnated. One of the major reasons is the visas and the taxes. The Indian Government has still not liberated visas for travellers from many countries. Obtaining an Indian visa has become a challenge for major European travellers. Especially the British. Visa on arrival too has not seen any new developments or increase in the numbers due to restrictions imposed and processing times of the e-visas.
Further even for Domestic MICE the challenges are of GST input credits for interstate for hotels and accommodations, which cannot be claimed as setoffs, to which the organisers of MICE events have to take the brunt of an average of 18% on the billing/budgets. Various representations have been submitted by TAAI as well as by FAITH to the Government of India, but in vain.
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‘Through physical trade events, meetings & roadshows we have to tell that India is ready’
Ravi Gosain
Vice President, IATO (Indian Association of Tour Operators)
Each segment of tourism whether Inbound, Domestic or MICE has its own characteristics and their individual share in overall tourism industry depends on its demand, favourable environment and price competitiveness. All these were growing steadily pre pandemic but during the pandemic when borders were closed, flights were grounded it was just impossible for inbound traffic, that time Domestic tourism and intra region MICE flourished and took front seat. However once borders opened for tourists, covid conditions were lifted or eased by most of the countries, cross border tourism is slowly picking up again.
In Erco Travels, we have more than 95% of inbound traffic throughout the years and there is no change post pandemic but yes, we don’t have similar volumes. We are now bridging all broken links and actively promoting our services and products in the overseas market. Pandemic was a nightmare but we lived on a hope and I personally have a strong belief that Inbound will bounce back, we are glad that we will operate 25-30% of inbound business from 2019 levels in current financial year. It will take some time to reach 2019 figures and if we are fortunate and do not get any other adverse situation, we will cross the pre pandemic levels in FY 2023-24.
MICE is another segment which was affected badly due to absence of physical events but now it is coming back strongly. If you call any of good city centre 5* hotels it’s very difficult to get a space for MICE events, which shows the surging demand and positive recovery.
I strongly recommend the need of promoting physical trade events, meetings, roadshow to show the world that India is ready to receive tourists because the confidence was lost during covid and people worldwide are still apprehensive about safety and hygiene in India, especially keeping its population in mind. So, we must go out and meet our overseas partners, locals and tell them about our preparedness and situation post pandemic. This will give foreigners trust and confidence to visit India again for both leisure and MICE. I travelled to IFTM in Paris and it was really great to meet our partners from France and Switzerland. Post this trip we have seen marginal growth in business, so now I will look forward to participate in WTM, London and confident to generate interest for India.
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